Adobe Systems announced on Tuesday that it plans to drop the Mac version of FrameMaker, the latest sign of eroding support for the Apple Computer operating system.

The San Jose, Calif. company said it will stop selling the Mac edition of FrameMaker, a set of print and electronic publishing tools commonly used to create complex documents such as technical manuals, as of April 21. It will continue to support the Mac version for one year after that.

Sales of the Mac version of FrameMaker were too low to justify continued development, Adobe said in a statement. The application will continue to be available for Windows and for Sun Microsystems' Solaris version of Unix.

"The decision to discontinue the Mac version was primarily based on market conditions," said Tony Yun, Adobe product manager. "The majority has been on Windows and Solaris for a while--that's kind of been the trend."

Yun noted that the current version of FrameMaker is for Mac OS 9, and it would have been particularly expensive to develop an OS X-native version of the application.

The decision is the latest in a series of snubs against the Apple operating system, long favored by the "creative professionals" who comprise one of Adobe's core audiences. Adobe skipped Mac users in several recent releases, including its Atmosphere 3D graphics application, for which the company declared the Mac market would be too small.

Adobe raised the hackles of Mac fans last year, when it republished test results that indicate that computers with Microsoft's Windows operating system may run some of its applications faster than Macs do.

Executives have insisted that Adobe's rapport with Apple remains solid. "Our relationship with Apple is like a relationship in any marriage, good or bad," Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said in a recent interview with CNET News.com. "It's an important relationship for both of us to maintain and make stronger, knowing that there are differences...Where we compete, we've agreed to compete. Where we partner, we partner aggressively."

Well, I suppose it had to happen. Photoshop will probably be next, so we had better start looking elsewhere. These were the last few large commercial programs we were using anyway, and this really just validates our strategy of adopting open source or generic software for any function we depend on. This will save us a bundle not updating our Unix and Windows Framemaker and Photoshop. Tex, Gimp, here we come.

Well, I suppose it had to happen. Photoshop will probably be next, so we had better start looking elsewhere. These were the last few large commercial programs we were using anyway, and this really just validates our strategy of adopting open source or generic software for any function we depend on. This will save us a bundle not updating our Unix and Windows Framemaker and Photoshop. Tex, Gimp, here we come.

It was for OS 9 only anyway. There are plenty of other solutions...that is what "created" the "poor market conditions" that Adobe is referring to. Fact is, there are so many freeware or inexpensive shareware programs that can do the same thing. Boo hooo

It was for OS 9 only anyway. There are plenty of other solutions...that is what "created" the "poor market conditions" that Adobe is referring to. Fact is, there are so many freeware or inexpensive shareware programs that can do the same thing. Boo hooo

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